If you’re concerned about contributing to the vast amounts of plastic ending up in landfills and the ocean, choosing plastic-free toys instead of plastic ones can be a way of making a small difference by reducing the amount of plastic you are buying (and eventually disposing of)

We have been really impressed to see that there’s plenty of brilliant options of plastic free toys for young children out there.

Here are our current favourites for young children. If you’d like to see most of them all on Amazon in one place, have a look at our shop front here under ‘plastic free toys‘:

• Country Critters Activity Cube– For those with children who are just learning to stand, toddle and walk, this sturdy activity Cube is a great toy to stand up and hold onto whilst playing. The activities on the Cube are fantastic, so much variation and something for everyone- have a look at our video of it here and find it on Amazon here.

• Wooden Toaster sold by Jo Jo Maman Bebe. This toy may be compact but it can provide hours of imaginative play. Brilliant for children who want to act out what grown-ups are doing. Children can put the pieces of wooden bread into the toaster, click them in place, press the button to pop them out when they are done…and even spread ‘butter and Jam’ on them! A wonderful way to teach children an important life skill through play too. Find it on Amazon here or on Jo Jo Maman Bebe website here

• Lolly and Ice Cream Shop– We absolutely adore this toy by Gltc with it’s clever details and fun features. The creators have thought of everything from the jokes on the wooden lolly pop sticks, to the magnet in the ice cream scoop and ice cream (enabling you to smoothly transfer a dollop of wooden ice-cream into the cone or bowl!) There’s even wafers and pretend chocolate and strawberry sauce. Great toy for imaginative play and developing speech and language/conversation skills through role play. Find it on their website here.

• Dinosaur Skeleton Kits– We are huge fans of dinosaur toys in our house, but many of them are plastic. So it was lovely to discover these dinosaur wooden construction kits on Cheatwell Games’ website. Great fun to put together, helps develop problem solving skills and you can even paint the finishes (40cm tall!!) dinosaur!

• Wooden Toy Garage by Twoey– This beautifully made, strong and sturdy wooden garage is great for homes, nurseries and schools. My little testers loved how fast toy cars whizz down the steep ramp and enjoyed parking their toy cars on the top level of the garage. Find it here.

• Stacking Veggies by Le Toy Van – Arguably one of the cutest wooden toys around, these brightly coloured, stacking vegetables complete with plant pots are great for developing problem solving skills and hand eye coordination. They are also a fantastic prompt to get children interested in plants and where our food comes from. Find them on the Le Toy Van website here

• Wooden Coffee Machine- We featured this brilliant wooden toy on our site back in November last year as one of our favourite toys for developing imaginative play (have a read of our favourite imaginative play toys here) Buy it on Amazon here.

• Bench-Classic World Pound and Tap Lots of young children love cause and effect games (…and bashing things with a hammer!) and this gorgeous, colourful wooden toy is ideal. What makes it even more wonderful is that when the ball is hit through the hole it rolls along the xylophone making a little tune and turn it over and you can play the xylophone itself!

Wooden Alphabet Puzzle by Toys of Wood Oxford– This toy has been one of our favourite wooden toys for a long time. It provides a lovely, hands-on way of teaching children the alphabet and developing hand eye coordination by practising fitting the shapes into the right place. Find it on Amazon here.

Not 100% plastic-Free but worth a mention!

• Robot Factory Domino Chain Reaction Toy– This brilliant STEM based toy is a fun way of introducing children to the laws of physics through play. Whilst there is a tiny bit of plastic (sorry that’s it’s not truly a plastic free toy) children can have great fun setting up the domino chain which includes exciting features such as a wooden ball to launch, a tilting car and a zigzag ball path. Find it on Amazon Here.

*Please note we were sent some samples for review. All words and opinions are our own.